Month: June 2016

Jobs Threatened by Machines: A Once ‘Stupid’ Concern Gains Respect They replaced horses, didn’t they? That’s how the late, great economist Wassily Leontief responded 35 years ago to those who argued technology would never really replace people’s work. Horses hung around in the labor force for quite some time after they were first challenged by “modern” communications technologies like the telegraph and the railroad, hauling stuff and people around farms and cities. But when the internal combustion engine came along, horses — as a critical component of the world economy…

3 Important Uses of Fibonacci Numbers An example of the power of math can be found in Fibonacci numbers. Fibonacci numbers are a sequence discovered by Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci in the 13th century. The sequence is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and 89 on to infinity. The sequence has a series of interesting properties. The sum of any two consecutive numbers equals the next highest number. After the first four numbers, the ratio of any number to its next highest number approaches 0.618. The ratio…

Eurozone’s growth expectations estimate annual GDP growth at 1.7% with higher average quarterly rise outstripping UK The eurozone’s reputation as the laggard of the global economy appeared to be overly pessimistic, after revised figures showed annual GDP growth in the currency bloc edged higher to 1.7%. Eurostat, the official data agency for the European Union, showed that GDP growth in the first quarter was 0.6%, after being trimmed to 0.5% in an earlier estimate, pushing the annual growth rate up from the previous estimate of 1.6%. Growth in the fourth quarter…

The Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates again soon – and this will drive some people crazy Probably sooner than you — or at least the market — think. In a speech in Philadelphia on Monday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen, speaking for the final time before the Fed’s June 15 meeting, said that another interest rate hike from the Fed does not require the central bank meet both parts of its dual mandate first. Here’s the key bit from Yellen’s speech (emphasis added): I continue to believe that it will be appropriate…

The billionaire crisis: easy come, easy go Rapper Notorious B.I.G. may have said it best when he sang, “Mo money, mo problems.” The global uber rich have no shortage of complaints right now, given volatile markets where we have witnessed the combination of the commodities downtrend, the unwinding of petrodollar flows, banks getting fined for managing secret accounts and the arrival of negative interest rates. On top of all of that, those opting to stash cash offshore have found that the practice is a lightning rod for criticism. In the recent Panama…

When’s the Right Time to Invest? In the stock market, timing is nothing — but time is everything. It’s not surprising that first-time investors often worry about the timing of their initial stock purchases. Getting started at the wrong point in the market’s ups and downs can leave you staring at big losses right off the bat. But take heart, Fools: Whenever you first invest, time is on your side. Over the long haul, the compounding returns of a well-chosen investment will add up nicely, whatever the market happens to…

Nordic American Offshore: A 10% Yield Sure To Be Cut I’ve been writing the Safety Net column for more than three years. I’ve never seen a stock that was as much of a lock for a dividend cut as the one I’m covering this week. Nordic American Offshore (NYSE: NAO) is a microcap stock with a market cap of just $110 million. It trades a little over 100,000 shares per day. Nordic American owns and operates platform vessels in the North Sea. Given that the company is heavily tied to the oil industry,…